FA Cup third round proves you can't put price on magic

It says much about the nation’s enduring fascination with the FA Cup that a
programme for the Sunderland v Aston Villa final of exactly a century ago is
up for auction for £7,500, while a restored single sheet of paper
celebrating the 1912 climax between Barnsley and West Brom, including ads
for OXO and “cyder”, has a starting bid of £10,500. Football nostalgia
sells.

Come on you Seagulls: the FA Cup certainly still means something to this young Brighton fanPhoto: ACTION IMAGES

The record for a programme is still £23,500 for the 1909 final between Manchester United and Bristol City, another slip of paper covered with endorsements for cricket bats, whisky and a cure for rupture (“so you can dispense with your Truss entirely”). The Cup runneth over with appeal. Still. It remains part of discussions in public houses as well as auction houses.

Every year the third round of the oldest knockout competition of all is accompanied by a debate about its future. The sight of weakened teams signals managers’ fixations with league position. The pictures of empty seats reflect fans’ prioritising at a time of tightened belts. Yet still the FA Cupcasts a spell. This third-round weekend started sparkily, with Brighton and Hove Albion deservedly defeating Newcastle United 2-0, out-passing them and out-fighting them.

Cynics and party-poopers argued that Newcastle's thoughts seemed elsewhere, but try telling that to Brighton’s jubilant supporters, some recalling how their run to the 1983 final started with a third-round triumph over Newcastle (after a replay at St James’ Park). Try telling 1,978 furious Geordies, who had known that a Cup campaign was the limit of their season’s joys, that the result they had just painfully witnessed in person lacked true significance. It did. It hurt. The Cup matters.

That is why it stirs such passion. Some resentment exists towards the FA, the guardians of the trophy. Little thought was given to Newcastle fans when rescheduling a televised tie at 12.30 on the South Coast.

The FA has again sacrificed tradition, and the feelings of travelling fans, on the altar of commerce by decreeing a 17.15 kick-off for the May 11 final. Its chosen broadcasters gain a larger audience early evening while the Cup’s main title sponsor, a brewer, will enjoy the idea of heaving, big-screened hostelries. He who pays the piper and pulls the pints calls the tune.

Yet still the Cup seizes the imagination. The dream factory remains open for business, as Brighton’s goalscorers, Andrea Orlandi and Will Hoskins, proved by putting their names up in lights. For all Newcastle’s woes, this was a Premier League scalp.

For the likes of Mansfield Town, preparing to entertain Liverpool on Sunday, this is their chance to remind the elite they are alive and kicking, to show those upstairs there is class below. For Cheltenham Town on Monday, the contrasts are obvious: Jermaine McGlashan is their joint-record buy at £60,000 while Everton spent £15 million on Marouane Fellaini.

The contrasts have long been a motivation for many of those striding out to confront more illustrious names in the Cup. For some it will simply be about the glory, about following in the fabled footsteps of Ronnie Radford and Ricky George in the mud of Edgar Street in 1972 when Hereford United of the Southern League humbled a previous Newcastle generation.

The history of the Cup frequently resembles a Bayeux tapestry of famous conquests, lovingly stitched in colourful thread. There was Harry Redknapp’s Bournemouth defeating Ron Atkinson’s Manchester United in 1984. Coventry City fans still have their dreams stalked by thoughts of Gander Green Lane and the ambush by Sutton United scarcely 20 months after their momentous final win over Spurs.

Results like Brighton’s, even if far from a fully-fledged shock, afford the Cup an enjoyable glance back down memory lane. In 1991, Tim Buzaglo, whose previous sporting prominence was representing Gibraltar at cricket, became a household name in England when scoring a classy hat-trick at West Brom for Isthmian League Woking. Buzaglo started the day throwing up with nerves but ended with ownership of the match-ball and the memory of being lauded by Albion’s sporting fans, who also exhorted their board to “sign him up”.

So many special moments adorn the Cup. Wrexham fans recall warmly Mickey Thomas’s free-kick and celebration against Arsenal’s David Seaman in 1992 and then Steve Watkin’s winner. This weekend marks the 10th anniversary of Nigel Jemson’s double for Shrewsbury Town against Everton, making a mockery of the 80-place divide.

It is hard to envisage a city shaking with more Cup fever than Exeter after their non-League team brought Manchester United back for a replay in 2005. Fans were up trees and lamp posts, leaning precariously out of windows to gain a glimpse of the vaunted visitors. The Grecians lost but great memories were bequeathed.

Think of Barnsley five years ago. Brian Howard struck in injury time at Anfield to knock Liverpool out in the fifth round. Oakwell rocked with emotion in the quarter-final when Kayode Odejayi’s header sent the Chelsea of John Terry, Michael Essien and Nicolas Anelka packing. On Saturday lunchtime it was Brighton fans revelling in their team’s feats.

The Cup matters. So in its 150th anniversary year, the FA needs to look past the bunting and Happy Birthday cards and consider what more it can do to give the Cup more lustre. Supporters should be consulted again, particularly those who actually attend ties.

More subsided ticket schemes (as the more enlightened clubs do), increased prize money for teams and reverting to the traditional final kick-off time would be a start. The FA needs to act because next season’s huge rise in Premier League TV income will surely lead to even more weakened Cup sides like Newcastle’s of Saturday.

For all its dents, the Cup still gleams in many fans’ eyes, especially in those who collect final programmes. When it comes to the value of the pre-WWI ones, an added poignancy is attached to such precious relics of history in that some of the players’ names listed were soon to follow Lord Kitchener’s finger and be pointed towards the trenches of France. Harry Hampton, Villa’s prolific England centre-forward, saw action in the Somme and suffered from the inhalation of mustard gas.

Ditto many amongst the 100,000-plus final crowds. The FA Cup is embedded in the fabric of the nation, past and present. Ask Brighton.